10 Costly Small Business Mistakes and How to Avoid Them (Eps14) (Video)

Are you undercharging, doing everything yourself or running your business without fully understanding your numbers?

In this episode of Small Business Sorted, business growth coach Crystal Petzer and bookkeeper Kay Godfrey reveal 10 common small business mistakes and practical ways to avoid them.

Drawing on their experience running businesses and helping Australian business owners, Kay and Crystal explore the problems that can damage your cash flow, profitability, team, customer experience and long-term business growth.

The 10 small business mistakes covered are:

1. Not knowing your numbers
2. Pricing too low and undercharging
3. Trying to do everything yourself
4. Operating without proper systems and processes
5. Hiring employees too quickly—or waiting too long
6. Avoiding difficult conversations
7. Not marketing consistently
8. Ignoring the customer experience
9. Failing to plan ahead
10. Not looking after yourself as the business owner

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why understanding profit, cash flow and job profitability matters
• How undercharging affects every part of your business
• Why delegation is essential for sustainable business growth
• How systems and procedures reduce business chaos
• When to hire your next employee
• How to approach difficult conversations with staff and customers
• Why marketing must continue when you’re busy
• How customer experience affects referrals and repeat business
• How a simple 90-day business plan can create direction
• Why business-owner burnout affects decision-making and performance

Whether you’re a tradie, service provider, consultant, entrepreneur or established business owner, this episode will help you recognise the habits and decisions that may be holding your business back.

If you recognise several of these mistakes, don’t panic. Choose one area, take one practical step and start improving it today.

Connect with Small Business Sorted:

Crystal Petzer – Business Growth Coach
https://businessgrowthcoach.com.au/

Kay Godfrey – Up Up and Away Bookkeeping
https://upupandaway.net.au/

Radio Northern Beaches – 88.7 or 90.3 FM
https://www.rnb.org.au/

Email: radio@businessgrowthcoach.com.au

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590811295505

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/small_business_sorted/

Follow Small Business Sorted for practical Australian small business advice covering business growth, finance, pricing, leadership, staffing, marketing and business systems.

#SmallBusinessMistakes #SmallBusinessAustralia #BusinessGrowth #BusinessAdvice #CashFlow #BusinessPricing #Entrepreneurship #SmallBusinessSorted

shows at the beginning of each episode for 15 seconds

Connect with us:
Crystal Petzer - https://businessgrowthcoach.com.au/
Kay Godfrey - https://upupandaway.net.au/

Radio Northern Beaches 88.7 or 90.3 FM - https://www.rnb.org.au/
Email us - radio@businessgrowthcoach.com.au

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590811295505
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/small_business_sorted/

If this episode hits home, share it with a business owner who needs to hear it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Welcome back. Welcome back.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Yes. We've got a great topic today.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

We've always got great topics.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

And you're listening to Kay and Crystal Small Business Sorted Podcasts. Correct. Yes. We're very excited about this topic.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

And we've switched places this time.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

We have. We've switched seeds so we could mix it up.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Feels a bit odd.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

That's good. Otherwise it's otherwise we get too comfortable in the one position. So this podcast is going to be about the top ten mistakes in small business. Only the top ten? Wow. Well the top ten. The top ten. Only ten. Yes, top ten.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

That we well the top ten that we think. Yes. We'll do them some more next time.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Yeah, maybe we'll do the the eleven to twenty. I'm sure there's more than just ten. But really, it's just about we we're just gonna be covering and diving into each one of those and just sort of talking from our experiences to what we've had and a bit of experience. So if you've ever made a mistake in your business, you're in really good company here. I'm sure you'll recognise quite a few of them and you may have made them yourself. And let us know. Yeah, let us know. And maybe we could stop you from doing a few as well, which could be and you can not have to go that down that road of the hard knocks road, right? Yeah. So what is the what is the first one, Kay, that we we thought?

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Mistake number one. I know the first one that I think of, because I don't have your cheat sheet in front of me, is not knowing your numbers.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Ah, the good old not knowing your numbers.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

That is number one, you know. Just looking at your sales either just looking at your sales figures, or just looking at the cash in the bank. Either of those is or not knowing if you've made a profit or not. Or and therefore possibly not knowing if you've made a profit or not.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

So I get that. And without having accurate figures, and I'll give you an example this week. I had a client come in and he's been a client for a while, and we were really unhappy with his oh, he was doing his own bookkeeping. So he was reconciling all his own stuff. And I've said to him, Why are you doing that? You're too busy. He's got like 10 staff or 12 staff. It's just crazy. So he wasn't using bills and putting the bills in, he was just using zero? Yes. So he was just going down and going ding ding ding, materials, materials, materials. So anyway, we've now got all the bills coming in, and he's now given it to a bookkeeper. But the bookkeeper he gave to them, she had it for over a month, and there was still something like a thousand unreconciled. And they weren't just they weren't just questions for him. There was a lot of things in there she could have reconciled. And so we wanted it for the for the end of month of June so we could see what he was doing. So anyway, he's complained to the bookkeeping company or the place that he's had them. They've actually fired her. Okay. Because they realized that she had forgotten that she was doing his account. Can you believe that? So, anyway, we've got a good bookkeeper now, and the visibility, so we actually could look at what he's done in this last financial week. We haven't had good visibility on that all year. And it'd be something I've really been working hard with him to get up to date. And we actually looked at his figures for the first time and we had visibility of the profits that he made, what the sales were. He hasn't seen that for maybe three, four years. Yeah. And it made such a difference. And even to him, he goes, Did I do that? You did 1.7 in sales, which is amazing, right? 1.7 mil. And I just said to him, that's the best you've ever done. And this is the best profit you've ever made. And I said, How good's that? And now he whereas before it he kind of knew, but he didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

And of course, having the bills that you need to pay in there is important because if you only you can reconcile just from the bank, but you're missing anything that you have received that you haven't paid yet.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Do you know what I love about bills? You know, when you pay off a statement, I know they pay that off the statement, but but what I like about having the bills in there is that they match the month that you've done the labor.

SPEAKER_04 4:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

So if you have the bills done with the labour, then you get to have accurate figures for that month. But if you pay off the statement, you may pay last month's in the next month, and then it doesn't match your labour or your sales, does it? No.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

No. And a lot of people pay off the statement and therefore just reconcile the full amount of materials two months later. Yeah, why do they do that? Maybe they just don't know better. Although it's more work.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

It is more work. Well, not really with decks you just take a photo and send it in.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Or email it in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Sometimes the hard thing with paying You've got to reconcile the bills to the statement. Well, you obviously have to reconcile the bills to the statement, but often the statement they'll give you a credit somewhere that you might not have seen. So then you've got a difference that you have to reconcile, which can cause a problem. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

But I think it's that visibility of knowing what you've done, also understanding your wages to your sales, and then also seeing what your labour ratio is, also your gross profit dollars. Because if your gross profit margin or your gross profit dollars is less, or say in your if your industry average is sitting, let's just take trade like a handyman, you should be sitting up around 55% gross profit, right? With your wages and your materials coming out. And you that's your staff wages. And so if you're only sitting at 45%, you leaving 10% of that on the table somewhere, and you're not going for it. So knowing those figures and knowing that you're undercharging, or that maybe you're forgetting to put all the materials onto the invoice, or maybe you just you don't know, right? So if you don't have a proper system for that or understanding that, how do you know where you can improve, you know? And I always feel that's that's just so important, isn't it? The other thing about numbers K is cash flow. Yes. And your tax. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

So that understanding all of that as well, right? You've got to understand what money's coming in and what money's going out.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

What's the best way to to look at a cash flow?

SPEAKER_02 6:42

You know what? Cash flow is actually quite a hard thing. It is hard. No, it does. It's not it's not what it could be. Because it's hard. It is hard and you have to put some effort in to do an actual if you want to do an actual cash flow forecast, you have to put some effort in.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

So how would you go about doing that if you were to?

SPEAKER_02 6:57

I would I've done it on spreadsheets before. Okay. I've I actually find doing it on a spreadsheet is probably the easiest thing to do.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

When I've got cli I've had clients who So how do you do it? How do you start that? You have money coming you have bank balance at the top, money coming in, days at days or weeks across the state. They come in. So that would be your invoices being paid. Money coming in when you expect the money to be paid. Oh yeah. Yep, yep. And then any money out when you expect the bills to be paid. Insurance. Insurance when you pay when you actually pay your TLE if you're a tradee, or your bunnings, because that's usually on a monthly basis. Your contract. When you expect to pay your BAS, which can be which is quarterly. You have to put all those figures into the spreadsheet. Yeah. And then you started with your bank balance plus what came in minus what went out comes to your next day's or week's balance. And you have to update it as well with the actuals. So cash flow can be a lot of work, which is why people don't do it. I did it for a couple of clients because I knew their cash flow was what's wood. Not good. Shite. We had to be well and and I think at the time I was actually paying, I actually had control of what was paid. Oh you really needed to know. I needed to know can we pay this? Can't we pay it? So and that's really yeah. And but you can now do it in zero. They have that capability, that functionality. Yeah. Cash flow. Cash flow forecast, you can do it again, though, it requires some work. Zero will pull what it what it knows from the past. But you've got to look at it and you've got to look at it and change it and update it and add in the extra things. So cash flow is not an easy thing to do if that's the way.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

But it's important to understand, especially if t if money's time.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

You can try and do it close as some most businesses know. Forget the little things. You know, I'm I'm paying $50 for this or $25 for that, or just put the big ticket items in.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Yep. So then you know you've got enough cash. So then yeah, then then especially if you're like an e-commerce or you are selling product overseas, you know, or you're getting, yeah. So say you've got you're selling stuff in the US and the UK, you kind of need to know how much stock you're gonna need to to ship over and all that, or how you've got to buy your stock in advance.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

I mean, in some cases you don't know what your sales are. If you if you're selling through the internet, like e-commerce and stuff, can be up one day, down the next.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

No, because you've got average sales, but if something changes, or if you have a sale on. Yeah, you have a sale on, then you double your price. Yeah, you would double your sales, so you need double the stock. Well, again, yeah. Potentially.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

So, I mean, and cash flow, you need to think also about all the amount of money that's tied up in things like stock inventory. So, yeah, it's it's it's it's not.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

I always find the worst time of year for cash flow is around when you pay that March, it's around April. Because your accountant's probably just done your December Bass. You've got your well, you probably have a bit of your December Bass, but you've probably got your January to March Bass. But then they do your end of financial year for the previous year around that time. And so then you've got part of that money to pay, and then you've got your whatever taxes you need to pay on your profit. And then you've got your personal expenses for that if they're doing it all at once. You may have your financial, personal finance returns involved in that as well. And your workers comp comes up in June as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Workers comp, though, you can pay. Um, this is where you have to make these decisions. Yeah. Workers' comp, you can pay monthly if you want to. I think you get it cheaper if you pay annually, but it's so I do mine monthly. Yeah, I I think this is I do my super.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Well, super now is payday super, you've got to pay now.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Although everybody's comp they're not nobody's complaining about it really. No, it's not. But although people are upset about it, I think it's actually helping your cash flow. Because you have to pay it as soon as you pay the wages. I like it. So you've actually got that issue of when am I gonna pay it? Yeah. There's no problem.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

I actually pay the PAYG, the pay as you go tax for your wages. I pay those monthly as well. So I just couldn't stand the BASS being so high, you know.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

We think we. I'm sure that um they'll have P A Y G paid as soon as I think so too. I think they're going to be long before that starting. I think you're right. They'll see our easy. They didn't they do that first? Why didn't they do that first before the super?

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Because people went a lot of businesses aren't paying the super. Their super we'd get they pay that first before they pay the staff super. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

But yeah, cash flow, definitely something you need to look at. Um you may want to get a bookkeeper to look at it for you.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Your net profit, obviously, knowing if you're making a profit and or even if you're breaking even. So, what would be a tip then for for not knowing your numbers? Mistake number one.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

Keep get your bookkeeping up to date with my sort of tip. Yeah, I like that. Keep th keep everything up to date. Keep everything up to date.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

And also maybe sit down and at least have a 30-minute review at the end of every month, knowing what your figures are. Yes. Once you've got all your books up to date, do that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Just sit down. I mean, I think with your profit once a month is sufficient.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

I think so. And you can always review your job's profitability per job in a job management system. So you could do that as you go. Like you should be checking that when you invoice, you should be looking at what profit you made on that job by adding in all the materials and your labour in there, or if you are doing project work or whatever, you just got to make sure you've got everything in there.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

How do you look at your jobs as a in sales?

SPEAKER_01 12:57

We do to see if each job is profitable.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Into the job itself.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

And it's got a and then it's actually got a area where you could see your profits. So as long as you've entered in all your actual hours, it's already got the quoted stuff in there. All right. But if you add in your actual hours and your actual materials with the invoices, then that gives you your GP dollars.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

So when you put in the materials that you buy for the jobs, you put them against the job in the Yeah, we put them both in zero and in the job management system.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

They go in two places. Yeah. And they and the boys have to pay for each job separ they have to buy the materials on a separate. So if you go in and buy for three jobs, you have three different invoices. I think that's something that a lot of people won't do. I know. It feels like it's a great idea. It's perfect. It feels like it's a lot of extra hassle for the stuff. But once they do it a few times, they don't know any different.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

But then otherwise, to do it properly, it's extra stu work for the admin person. Yes. Or whoever's putting the information into the system. So the bookkeeper. Yeah. So it's better to have it done at the source. It's definitely they do it at the And then it would be pulled through Dex. Yes. Data extract, which is what we all use for keeping track of our receipts and things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Okay. Yeah. So that's that's how we do it. Mistake number two.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

I do actually tell you a lot. I've got my list. Pricing pricing too low. Low. Oh my gosh. As we keep saying, the things we talk about often. But undercharging isn't everywhere, isn't it? Well, I don't know if you ask the customer, they'll say no. Who says I was charged too little? Seriously. Somewhere there's a definite issue there, isn't there?

unknown 14:51

That's true.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Maybe the issue is big companies aren't paying their employees enough money to pay the tradees as much money as they should be paying them to do the jobs that they're doing.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

But where do you stop and start with that? You know, it's the but I feel like pricing too low it can lead Oh my gosh, Kay, it can lead to everything, can't it? It could lead to stress, it can lead to lack of profitability, it can lead to not knowing your worth, it can lead to struggles, it can lead to your business failing.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Your ca your cash flow again won't be everything's affected by it.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Yeah. I think that should be number one. Not number two. Our list our list isn't really in numeric in order, but so I think my numbers would be the biggest mistake. Yeah, true. If you don't know your numbers, then you can't look at your pricing. You wouldn't know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

You wouldn't know to fix it, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:49

Yep. And I think resentment should be. Why do you think people undercharge? What why where why do you think that? One, they don't know that they're undercharging. They just have no idea. They look at competitors' prices. If they do you think they all do that? I think everybody does that. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

I don't.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

Well, everybody except for Crystal looks at competitors' prices.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

I look at comp I but I and I come across a lot of clients that don't know what their competitors are charging. That wouldn't have a clue. So it's really interesting to to do that comparison sometime and just get a feel as to what people are charging.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

As a bookkeeper, there's I think Ignition did a survey. Oh yeah. Now Ignition is the app I used for sending out my contracts and charging my clients. They did surveys. They did one on bookkeepers, how much they're charging and what they're charging, whether they're charging hourly fixed fee. They did the same for accountants, which was very interesting. Yeah. Just very interesting to know.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

The range would be huge. It is huge. And I know Mahai Rahbi was saying that the the difference between everybody's hourly rates and stuff was huge across the network. And I feel sometimes pricing is a mindset and it comes back to how you handled money in your family and what you grew up with. Money doesn't grow on trees. We can't afford this.

unknown 17:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Talked about that before. Yes, we have. And that mindset often follows you in adult life and how you run your business and how you would charge for your business. So sometimes, you know, charging too much is being greedy. If you make too much profit, you're being greedy. It just depends. I don't think I'd ever have that mindset.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Maybe I would. Maybe I never have, so it never came into.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

Did you did you overcharge? No. So you you must have had something running there. So to undercharge is sometimes, you know, you don't feel like, or you just go, I wouldn't pay for that. You know? And then you say, Well, but that's not, you're not the customer. Do you know what I mean? So, but I think reviewing your pricing at least twice a year could be useful. Yeah. And just making sure that you're not too much lessen your competitors, or you're not too much over the well, it doesn't matter if you're over, but if but somewhere you want to feel like you're making in your pricing needs to also reflect your profitability and what you need to make as well. Yeah. Any tips on pricing too low, Kay? Well, you shouldn't price too low.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

So how do you stop doing that? You have to charge more. Simply yes. What's the answer to the question? Is this a trick question?

SPEAKER_03 18:51

But it is.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

It's true.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

You need to you need to charge what your what your company needs you to charge and what you're worth. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

I mean you've got to do the calculations. I know. I mean I did the It's hard though sometimes. Yeah, well you have to sit down and do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Often that's and how it's it's how profitable you want your business to be as well, is is the key too. Because some people don't need the profits as much. Others it might be a second business or you don't need the money. So it's more of a lifestyle business. But I guess for a lot of people who have big mortgages and that you do need to, so that could be a place to start and review. Are you undercharging? Yeah, it's it's true.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

It's not just not just what you need the business to make on its own. No. It's how much do you need or want to live.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Do I put my prices up? Do I need more work? You know, it's it's all of that. Sometimes you don't need to get more work in, you could just put your prices up because you were already too low. Yes. Or how do you price it? Yes. Anyway, that's a huge topic, but that is a mistake number two that that a lot of business owners make. Mistake number three.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

Trying to do everything yourself. Ah, which is trying to do it. Which we've just talked about in our other podcast. Yes. Which is is a huge mistake that um new business owners or any business owner makes, especially when you're new. Yes. You it in the beginning you have to do it yourself. Yes. I think you have to. You're a one-man band, you've just started. You might have that employee mindset. I I think that yeah, that's what I was talking about. Yeah, you've got that employee mindset. But I think um you don't actually have to, even in the beginning, I have seen business owners start a business and not and already start with a bookkeeper. Yeah. From the beginning. Or an admin at least. Yeah. I think they're the clever ones sometimes that they have delegated some of those. It also and then made it work. And made it work. And it also helps them with the setup of the business because that admin person can help you with your systems, get them set up. Yeah. You don't have to do that yourself. Yeah. I like that. But certainly going forward, it's a definitely a mistake to try and do everything.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

And does it I think that you could become the bottleneck in the business. You could stop your business from growing, you could stop your business from being profitable by you.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

You can become the bottleneck, but you're also not the expert.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

If you want if you want to do marketing, it might be quicker and more effective to get someone to do it for you than it is to try and do yourself. So some and bookkeeping the same, really.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

And sometimes by doing it all yourself, you may be not good at that. So then you're holding your business back from actually doing better. If you don't it is does that make sense? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

What they also always used to tell us as as a promotional tool in first class accounts was and I think they've got advertisements on the TV that say you can earn $100 an hour or $150, whatever you doing what you do. So why are you spending an hour doing your bookkeeping when you can pay a bookkeeper $85 an hour? Yeah, and they'll do it in half their time. Wouldn't you rather be out there earning your $150 or the Difference at least. Yeah. And that to me makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

It does, doesn't it? Yeah. I think the one thing, if you are one of those people that try and do everything yourself, it's normally it becomes a habit. It's also a trust thing. It might be that you don't you haven't trained your staff well. And I think a tip for that one would be write something down that you would like, or pick one thing that you do do that you could either delegate, outsource, or do it a different way or more efficiently.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

Yes. Or get a system.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Implement a system to help you. It's that sitting down and thinking time again, isn't it? Yes. That keeps coming up. Yes. Yes. And sitting down and doing that. Yes. So try not to be your bottleneck in your own business, I think, is a big one. Oh, mistake number four.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

No systems or processes. People might have systems, some. They certainly a lot of people don't have processes.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

What's the difference between the two?

SPEAKER_02 23:25

To me, a system is automated. A process doesn't have to be automated. It's not automation. It can be just how you how you make a cup of coffee or process.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

So I think a system for me is is yes, automation, but it's also a place where you have like a a CRM or a job management system or a zero. It's a place where you put information into to keep it all in one place. So that you can refer back to it, it can give you reporting, it can give you all of that. I think job management systems are great because you could do your quotes in there, your invoices in there, your scheduling in there, your staff hours are in there, or a combination of different systems. A CRM, you know, using that for your leads, like how they're coming in and doing stuff.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

I wonder what the definition of a system is. We'll have to look that up because I've got I don't actually know what the definition of a system is. And it probably is broader than what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Yeah, but I like your automation in that too, because that does make sense. And then the process for me is exactly like what you said. It's something that it's a process of how do I how do I use marketing? Like I put it on Facebook, I put it on Instagram, or how do I set up a quote, you know, and what do I put in there? Do I put the terms and conditions? I put like, you know, what the service requirements are.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

How do I answer the phone?

SPEAKER_01 24:57

How do I answer the phone? What do I say? Yeah. How do I greet a client? How do I handle, you know, uh following up outstanding invoices? That's that's a process, and you would have what they call your SOPS.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

SOP standards. SOP process.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Yes, standard operation. So that would be like you would have like your playbook or a Bible or a manual, whatever you want to call it in your business, and all of those processes should be written down. A lot of people have those in their head. True. Yes. And sometimes they think their business is too small to have that.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Doesn't have to be a hundred-page corporate document.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

It's also something you can use if you do fall under a bus.

unknown 25:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Somebody else has to take over.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

And can I tell you for businesses that get sold that that actually make the most amount of get the best sale prices are the ones that actually have procedures and systems in place.

SPEAKER_04 25:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

Because that's what you're that's that auto automation, auto key thing. You jump in and you just you the business can run almost by itself if you have those in place. Yes. So I think it's if you haven't done that, what would your tip be for someone who hasn't got any systems or processes? Get a system.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

Look at what can help you the most, I suppose. And I'd certainly say a bookkeeping system, I'd have to say zero. And I'd also say a job management system. Yeah. Such as trade five.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

And I think I'd look around your industry and see what most people are using. Yes. And and then go, okay, well, what's the best one in my industry and pick that one?

SPEAKER_02 26:28

And bearing in mind to set up a system will take you some time.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

It's not an overnight or a thing. Well get someone to help you with it. You will likely need someone to help. Well, it will speed things up. Yeah. To if you have someone.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

And if you do get staff to do it, make sure that you hold them accountable to doing it. Like you would have to run it almost like a project where you would go, okay, this week I want this, this, this, and this done, you know, and and you sort of go from there.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

I think that's part of systems as well, is having a list of what your staff need to do and when they need to do it.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

Yeah. So I think a tip for me would be that set up one system or set up pick a particular thing and work on that until you get that up and running, and then pick another one and do that. Like don't try and do all of it in one hit. It's just uh it's too much.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

And do it at the beginning when you're setting up the business. I'm just talking as a bookkeeper, but the worst thing you can do is get halfway through the year and then set up zero or QuickBooks. Yeah. Set it up from day one. Day one. Day one.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

It's one less thing you've got to worry about, isn't it? And you've got accurate figures then to deal with.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

Yep. Yep. So what's number five, Crystal? Without looking at the sheet.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Oh, I did look.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

Hiring too late or too fast. Oh my gosh. Knowing when to hire that extra person, that extra member of staff. Yeah. And like I said before, often getting someone on board before as you start the business, if you can afford it, it is a good idea. Yeah. So most people can't afford it, but a lot of people can. Yeah. They've got money from elsewhere that they want to invest in this business, and it's an investment. And as long as you can get the leads in the business. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

And I think one of the reasons why you would hire too fast is often you have too much work come in, like you're saying, too quickly. Yes. And you're desperate.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

And so you'll hire anybody that vaguely looks similar to the role that you want, and perhaps you don't even have a role or position description written out. So you would hire someone based on a quickly. Yeah. You wouldn't really vet them that well. And that can cause I know we've done that. And that has caused, you know, ends and ends of trouble and problems in the business, whether they they quality isn't great, then we can lose business. Like we lost a lot of business over one guy. And you can also get someone that doesn't fit the team culture. And you can we've lost staff, good staff, over this one bad hire. You could get some, we've had one staff that really was very, very good at his work, but was very, very poor at customer service and really upset the customers and upset the other staff sometimes with his grumpiness and just his attitude to life and everything. So I feel like when you're hiring too fast, what do they say? Fire fast and hire slow. That would be a better way to go about it. And also if you do have someone that's not great in your business, get rid of them sooner than later. Just get an HR person in if you need to, if it's going to be really difficult. But if they're not working out, pulling that band-aid off is is so much better. Doing it fast because keeping someone bad in the business is has just so many consequences to your business in the end. So when you hire Crystal, I wonder hiring too late. So like having an admin person in the business and you may have lost business or something like that if you hire too late. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Or you end up being burnt out.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

Yes, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

I think that's probably to me, that's what hiring too late means. Yeah. You're doing too much. And you you could have got that, should have got that admin person six weeks ago. Or another person to help another trade to help you or whatever. Yes. And you do it too late.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

And if you don't have your systems or processes right or a job description for these people, that can cause you a lot of problems as well, right?

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Yes. And I think with staff you need to have all the paperwork.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

Yes, you do. The contract. Position description. Everything. And and and a proper and a good induction can make such a difference to your staff. And I know for smaller businesses, it all sounds very corporate, but it's actually one of the most important things you can do in your business. And there's plenty of help around. Fair Work has a great website for all of this. And you there's plenty of outsourced HR people around that can help you set that up. Or some business coaches are quite quite good at that as well. But don't have without a contract, without a you'd be surprised how many people have people on their books that don't have a contract.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Which doesn't work well if you have workers' comp or insurance claims having coming in. No. So when you hire, where do you hire usually hire? Do you go through Seek or?

SPEAKER_01 31:55

Ooh, that's a tricky one. It depends. Yes. Seek seems to be the best place at the moment, I find. The local Facebook community employment pages can work. It works pretty well for admin, I'd have to say, but not so much for trades. You there are trade job boards as well. We haven't had a lot of luck with that. However, asking staff if they know anybody can work, and also asking your suppliers. I had one client that paid their supplier $1,000 for every staff member he found him. And this guy found him too. And so he went down there and gave him $1,000 in cash. And um that really helped him find some really, really good workers. Yeah, yeah. Number six, mistake number six. Oh, this is a good one. Avoiding difficult conversations. Oh my lord. So what why would somebody why would you avoid a difficult conversation with staff or customers or it's funny, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 33:08

When you ask why. Yeah, why would you? I don't I I'm trying struggling to find an answer. Because they're awkward. Because they make you feel unpleasant Unpleasant. Unpleasant, yeah. They are unpleasant. They are unpleasant. Because you don't know you know the reaction is going to be a negative one. Yeah. I think. Yeah. That's why. And nobody likes negative responses to anything. I mean, it's never anything good, is it?

SPEAKER_01 33:39

No, and I think you don't want to make you you look, none of us like having those difficult conversations. They're hard, they make you feel awkward, you're not sure what the reaction's gonna be, and you know that you may not have done many, so you haven't got a lot of experience.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

Right?

SPEAKER_01 34:02

Yeah, but you'd be surprised at how many people avoid them.

SPEAKER_02 34:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

There's might be a need to be liked. Possibly.

SPEAKER_02 34:10

I d I haven't had many difficult conversations in my life, I don't think. You just get rid of them. No, I mean staff members as far as I think when I had staff it was done through Angie. The Philippines, yeah. And it wasn't necessarily my job to fire them, because they weren't really my employees directly. I did have a girl in when I was in Germany working for a British car hire company. And she just again, I think we'd hired whether we'd hired too fast, but we'd just hired the wrong person. The wrong person. She was such a lovely girl, she just couldn't do the job. Yeah. And I had to tell her that give her a notice. Yeah, I've done that. And she was s so upset.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

It's really hard to do. There's a saying, and I've said this before, that to win respect with staff or anybody really, it's just a human thing to win respect from other people is that the ability to have a bad conversation in a in a nice way is a skill, but it it c it actually helps you win a lot of respect from people.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

Probably. Yeah. Depends what that conversation is.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

Well, we had someone who had really, really bad breath, right? And when we were working in retail, and it was so bad that it you know, it was really bad. And we had to have a conversation with her around that. And that was very, very difficult. And you know, we had to offer to pay, did you need to go to the dentist? You know, what can we do? Is there a problem? And somebody with bad BO, we've had to do that a few times. Or just, you know, dirty uniforms. I think doing it in a nice way takes a lot of skill and practice. But the more you do, I think the the it doesn't get easier, but I think that you you probably get better at how to have that conversation. I think that's where a lot of HR consultants come in. Yes, we've we've hired HR consultants when we know that person's is very difficult to deal with and we knew that we had to get him out, but who was having that conversation with her in the room to help us with that.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

If you do I don't know the details, but if you do want to fire somebody, it's probably best to get some kind of HR advice because you can be careful how you do it. Just thinking, we know a few HR professionals and they're all very nice people. Yeah. But if you think about the difficult conversations they have had to have and know that that's part of their job.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

Jobs, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:57

It's interesting. It must be makes I'd be interested to talk to them and ask them how they how they feel about it.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

I don't think they'd like it. I don't think anybody likes it.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

Yeah, no, probably not. They just do it more often. And they're usually impartial. That's the good thing. You're if you're the business owner and you're firing a member of staff, you're n you're involved in the situation. Yeah. It's almost personal. Whereas if you have a consultant come in, it's less personal. It's less personal, so they can actually look at it in a completely different light. Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

And I think it doesn't always have to be around staff stuff. You you could have to have a difficult conversation with your partner. You could have to have a difficult and then that's very personal because you don't know how sometimes that could be a minefield. I just don't have those at all.

SPEAKER_03 37:47

Is that passive aggressive, maybe?

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Or you have to have difficult conversations with customers as well. Like you can get very difficult customers. And sometimes you've got to have that difficult customer conversation where you actually you don't want to work with them.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

So you got you've got to have that as well.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

And I know a lot of don't know a lot of people, but I've seen it happen where give an example of a bookkeeper, and this isn't a situation I've really seen, but they st they start to do a bad job. Yes. So that they get fired. Yes. So that they avoid the difficult conversation with the client to say they don't want the client anymore. And I'm just saying that could happen. Yeah. Because somebody wants to avoid a difficult conversation.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

And that there there's passive aggressive and then there's aggressive, right? And passive aggressive is when you don't say things. Okay. But you've avoided. Thank you. But you notice that, but you people feel it, but then aggressive. I've had I've had both kind of bosses, and the aggressive can be really hard and harsh, and probably done in a very bad way. And they probably get aggressive because they leave it and leave it, and then it comes out. Whereas passive aggressive was very difficult to handle. He undermined me in every which way that I I went, and I really didn't enjoy that. It was so stressful.

SPEAKER_02 39:06

Probably worse than aggressive.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

I think so. It was very aggressive, you know. Very stressful. I had to leave, to be honest. It was that bad. But that that so I feel having those, yes, it's awkward, plan it, think it through, get advice on it.

SPEAKER_04 39:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

Sometimes not having you you don't want to have these these difficult conversations with lots of emotion. No. You want to have it when you when you're feeling calm and have thought it through. And what do they call it? The meat in the sandwich. So you do something nice, something bad, something learned that for a long time, but yes. Um or you basically just have to have it out just straight away. And I think I think it makes you a better human being able to do that. It's a skill, it's a probably a big fear for people.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

And people will actually like you and respect you more for you being able to do that. That would be my tip. Okay. All right, let's move on. What's your tip?

SPEAKER_03 40:07

Um, you don't like this conversation at all, do you? You really didn't like that conversation. I guess it's the HR lady. The HR lady's coming in. She's got a job. I'm just not having this. I'm not doing it, Mom. There's no way. Oh dear. You really didn't like that one. All right. Mistake number seven. Not marketing consistently.

SPEAKER_02 40:31

Oh. And I'm guilty of that. You have to market consistent consistently. I know. It works. It does work. Sometimes it doesn't always reap the same rewards or results.

SPEAKER_04 40:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

As we've seen with a yeah people we know that they can have no business for a while and then suddenly. But their marketing can be consistent. Yeah. It can it can happen. Yeah. But you still have to be consistent. Even if you're not getting the leads or the results, you still have to keep going. You still have to keep marketing.

SPEAKER_01 41:11

I think what h what what what happens when you do this, you do this run of you you start your business or you in you come out of a quiet patch again and you start your marketing and you get going again to get you those leads, right? And sales. And then you you get all those leads and sales in, then why do you stop? Because you get busy.

SPEAKER_02 41:34

And you think, I don't know. You don't have time for it, I think's the main thing. You stop doing it because you don't have time. I don't think you would stop because you you you can stop because you think it's not needed anymore.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

But yeah, you And maybe when you're busy, you don't think it's coming from there. Yes. It could be coming from somewhere else, yes.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

Yeah, or you or you think it is, yeah, yeah. But I think it's that combination of marketing keeps you it it creates people see it and people need a lot of touch points. Yes. It also validates that you're still in business. There was one client Warren. You remember he was in our board meeting and he had he hadn't posted anything on any of his social media for four years. And a lot of people would have thought that he had stopped being in business. Yeah, true. Yeah. You know what's happened? Why, what, how come? Yes, what's going on? And I feel like people are so connected now that they do stalk your business and look at your business and they try and get those reviews of, I guess, confirmation that other people have used you and have said good or bad things about you. So that confirmation is so important. People look for that. I know I do. If I haven't used someone before, I go straight to the reviews and look how many and not many. And I always go to the worst ones. And even if they've only got three there, I go to the worst and just want to see what and then I I make my own decision up after looking at the worst. So so marketing, not marketing consistently could also be a skill set. You may not be good at it. Oh yeah, yeah. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_02 43:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

So you might not be great at it. You may get bored of it. You may run out of time.

SPEAKER_02 43:29

I can see that happening.

SPEAKER_01 43:30

You know, like you run out of creativeness. Yes. If you're not creative. You may be off-brand a bit sometimes. But I feel like that it's like that feast or famine, you know, we have a lot, we don't have a lot. And I feel like when you stop when you have a lot, don't do that. Continue. Even if it's at a lower reduced amount or whatever it is that you're doing, don't stop because it's so, so hard to start again, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 43:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 43:59

Yes, absolutely. And you and you wear, get worn out, start again. Maybe do a little bit less. Yeah. If you're really busy, but yeah. Or just do one something once a week.

SPEAKER_02 44:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

Could be better as well. Yes. All right. We're getting close to the end. Mistake number eight, ignoring customer experience. Wow. Well that's should be up at the top of the list, I think, somewhere. Yeah. Ignoring customer experience. What is customer experience? That's probably the question to ask. I suppose how they feel about the work you've done.

SPEAKER_02 44:39

Not necessarily the work, how you how you did the work.

SPEAKER_01 44:42

Or how you even it starts customer experience starts even before you do the work, doesn't it? Yes. It starts with that reach out from from you as a client to them.

SPEAKER_02 44:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 44:55

And how fast did they get back to you, whether you did it as a website lead or whether you did it as a just phoning them up because you saw their number on a truck or you saw their number on a shop and you f you give them a call. You have a need, first of all.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 45:10

And then it's the people, how easy are they to find?

SPEAKER_02 45:13

Yes, true.

SPEAKER_01 45:14

That's customer experience. Did they answer the phone? How quickly did they return the call? Yeah. Then what, you know, after that, how quickly did they schedule you in or do the visit? When did they come? Did you get your quote? Yes. Or your pricing that you wanted? Yes. How what was the rapport like?

SPEAKER_00 45:34

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

Then it's that follow-up.

SPEAKER_02 45:37

If it's a trade-y, did they clean up? Yeah. Something I noticed, but at our house it's not absolutely necessary, is whether they take their boots off the door. It's because some of them do and some of them don't. I've never had them really asked. It's just either they either do or they don't. And I just think it's it was nice to be asked. For for us, we'd say don't worry It's fine. Don't worry, it's okay. And it's also cleaning up after themselves. Oh, that's my it's so nice when when it's all cleaned up nicely. Yeah. So nice. Because it's not always the case.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

It's like when you take your car in for a service and they wash your car. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 46:15

But I don't let them wash my car now. Because I've got a special car. You do have a special car. I actually need to ask them not to wash my car. Because I don't put it through a car wash. Yes. Because I don't want the brush marks on it. Yes. But yes, it is nice to have the car. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

I even I'm even happy to pay more to have that. You know, like I'm happy to pay more for my service to have that.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

I don't the last time I had my car service, not that there's anything really wrong with that. I had to take it up to the Blue Mountains to get it service, which was fine. But I sort of wanted hoped that they'd call me to tell me it was going to be finished earlier than they had said. But they didn't. And I I think it actually was ready. Yes. But they just didn't call you. I kind of hung around a bit longer than I Oh, so you had to wait for it. Yeah. I wasn't there. I mean, I think it was just a case of the paperwork wasn't done. So obviously they weren't they weren't finished. I just I was just hoping that I get that extra that's customer service. Yeah. I was I was hoping I get a bit of extra.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

I I feel when you get great customer service, we all remember great customer service. We all remember bad customer service. But that mediocre customer service doesn't make you want to use them again either. This wasn't mediocre, it was just I I wanted more. Yeah. But still, yeah. It's not hard to wow a customer, is it?

SPEAKER_02 47:37

I think I like to be wowed. Everybody likes to be wowed.

SPEAKER_01 47:39

Yeah. And I think it it we don't see that as much. I know in the US and in certain countries, not so much Europe, but but it definitely in the US, that customer service, because of the tips and that probably the tipping culture makes that customer service that little bit more enjoyable. I know you can get false customer, but their customer service is just that little bit better. And when it in Australia, our customer service is ridiculously bad.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

I really don't like is false if you if you call it false customer service. When people I went to the have a scan done. Yes. And the girl was very pleasant, but she was obviously it was almost Robotic? Pardon? Yeah. It was it wasn't genuine.

SPEAKER_01 48:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:25

Yeah. How are you today? Isn't it a lovely day outside? It wasn't it just wasn't genuine. I I could feel it. I I don't like that.

SPEAKER_01 48:34

It's awkward, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 48:35

Yeah, it's just not. I don't know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:38

I'd rather just you know what I love with with uh the US customer service? You get a glass of iced water every time you sit down.

SPEAKER_02 48:46

Well what I like We don't do that here. Coffee shops and coffee is I like it when they give you a little tiny biscuit. Biscuits, Jim loves that as well.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

He'll go to all the coffee shops that give him a biscuit. But it's those little things, right, that we all should be doing in our business that make such a difference, that keep customers coming back, that will get them to talk and rave about your business. It's highly underrated. And in Australia, our culture is what happens here is if you don't like that customer service, what do we do? We don't go there anymore. That's right. They'll say, How was everything? You go, it was great, thank you. And we never go back. You never say anything, and we never ever go back. And so you have to start to wonder why your business is getting quiet. Is it because your customer service has deteriorated?

SPEAKER_02 49:39

Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

Good question. I like that one.

SPEAKER_02 49:42

I feel that should be number one, actually. Yeah, I agree. A tip is to improve three points in the customer journey.

SPEAKER_01 49:48

Yes. So look at your customer journey. So which is a customer journey starts with them making the call to you or the reach out to you, or you reach out to them to remind them of a service or something like that. But that's when the journey and the journey doesn't finish when they pay you the money, the journey then finishes way after that. So what does that customer journey look like? And what's best practice? What are you doing well, what you're not doing well? I think that's my takeout for this whole thing. I love that one. Forgotten about that.

SPEAKER_02 50:20

Mistake number nine not planning ahead. You need to know where you're going to plan where you're going. I think this is very common. What do you want?

SPEAKER_01 50:32

Yeah. So if you don't plan, does everything feel urgent? Yes. And then can that lead to burnout? Yes. Absolutely. And and how hard is it to plan?

SPEAKER_02 50:48

You have to sit down and think about it. It's not hard. No. Effort. Time.

SPEAKER_01 50:56

Planning, like like we did our little planning session for the podcast. Like it doesn't have to be long and massively documented.

SPEAKER_02 51:04

It's exhausting. Think for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 51:10

But the planning is just like setting a goal. Okay, so we, you know, if we were to look at, I mean, an easy way to say is if in six months or one year's time, where do you how would you like that to look? And that's a plan, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then so if we say, you know, we said we'd like a thousand views in a month, so how do we get that? We early days. And then so, you know, so how what we then have to make our goals or our strategy around that that goal that we've set. So for you, it could be in your business, it could be, well, just understanding what your numbers are, for instance. How much revenue do I need to make to make this much profit? Or how much profit do I want? Or how much, you know, I need to know how many quotes we're doing every day, or or what is my profit per job? That could just be a simple plan, and then how do you do that?

SPEAKER_02 52:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:07

You know, or if we're growing 20% every year, when do I put that new staff member on?

SPEAKER_00 52:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:14

You know, is another plan. Or when do I need a new truck? Or when do I need to put a new admin staff on? Or do I need a new computer for the office? Or or when do I need do I need to grow so I need to find new bigger customers? Do I only have one big customer? Is that a risk?

unknown 52:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 52:33

So I feel like not planning ahead is a big one. So maybe Kay for this one, choosing three priorities for the next 90 days.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 52:44

Just break it down into that.

SPEAKER_02 52:46

Yep. And it a plan doesn't have to be something wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 52:49

No.

SPEAKER_02 52:50

I've actually got a board at home. Oh yeah. I've actually got goals and strategy, which is sort of a similar sort of thing. Well, a strategy is the big picture and the goals make the strategy. I think you have the goal and then you do the strategy to achieve the goal. No? Doesn't matter. Okay. Well that's where my biggest is.

SPEAKER_01 53:09

I think there's different different ways, there's different models.

SPEAKER_02 53:12

It doesn't have to be anything. It can have it can be on a whiteboard.

SPEAKER_01 53:14

Yeah. That's what I'm trying to say. Yeah. So you set your your vision or or your cap and then you do the goals or whatever. Yeah. What do you want to achieve? And then how you're going to get there is probably the simple way to say our vision.

SPEAKER_02 53:27

I think we know what our vision is, but it's kind of nice to do a vision. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. What would be our vision?

unknown 53:33

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

To be famous. Speak for yourself. Famous podcasters. What's your vision?

SPEAKER_03 53:42

I think I my vision is to have fun. That was it, yes.

SPEAKER_01 53:47

Yours is famous. Well, you can have that. I'm not interested in that. But I I think to have fun and to to of be I I think if if our podcast can help someone, that that would like recognition that what we're doing works would be would be would be my goal out of that. People get find useful stuff out of it would be good for me. The last question. Woo.

SPEAKER_02 54:15

Not looking after yourself as the owner. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:18

That's you need to um look after yourself whatever you do. I think uh not looking after yourself in a business is is quite high often. I think you look after yourself when things are all going well. But when things are not going well, I think you you tend not to look after yourself, which is probably or maybe when things go well you don't look after yourself. But I feel uh burnout can affect uh a lot of your decision making in the business. Burnout can affect your behaviour, burnout changes your mood, burnout makes your motivation disappear. You may not be as passionate about your business anymore. You may have been doing everything yourself for too long. Yep. And you're just not looking out for yourself. That work life balance is such a I'm I'm very passionate to talk about that so much.

SPEAKER_02 55:16

No, they don't. These days do they? It's it's odd. Or people don't talk to me about it much.

SPEAKER_01 55:22

No, they used to though, back in the day. Maybe those were in times of good times or something. Work life balance was important. I don't know, but I feel like it's really important because if you if it's your business and you are the decision maker, you gotta make you gotta set a good example, don't you? Well, yes. And if you want to have a happy, fulfilled life, you've got to look after yourself. If you want a happy relationship, you've got to kinda look after yourself. If you want you to be around with your kids or whatever, you've got to look out for yourself.

SPEAKER_02 55:59

You need to sp you need to put time aside for yourself, I think is and how do you how do you do that for you? What does that look like for you? I go, I'm a member of the Mazda MX5 Club. Oh yeah. And I go on drives. You do probably about once a fortnight with the club. Yeah. And Sunday we went to the Blue Mountains and had Christmas in July. So that's how I escape.

SPEAKER_01 56:22

And you what you go to the gym every day or you do?

SPEAKER_02 56:24

I don't go to the gym, but I exercise at home. I use I have a room or gym at home. So I need to do that for my own sanity. I'm a bit of a it's a bit of an obsession.

SPEAKER_03 56:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 56:36

And you do that daily? I do it daily, except if I'm doing podcast recording on the central case. Will you do it tonight then? No, I'd never make myself do it in the evenings. Yeah, I'm a bit the same.

SPEAKER_01 56:46

But yeah, fitness is a I think what I do is is I I love psychology and stuff. So I'm always reading up and learning more about myself. And I'm always doing lots of different courses on how to improve yourself. Like I've just done the NLP course again. And then I think for me, going to the gym three or four times a week is important. Eating well is important for me too. And I love we've got that house up at the Blue Mountains, but I love getting out in the bush and just getting away from it all, like in in that sort of environment, just calms me down. And I like my cat. I like my three cats. Yeah. And that's the time. I guess that's how I sort of definitely make sure that and and I go on regular holidays as well. I know you do. So Jim and I will plan at least three holidays every year. And I'll book them and pay for them before we at the beginning of every year. And that way we're forced to go. Yeah. And it doesn't matter how how hard it feels like to leave the businesses, we always do it. And so that that's that's our ways of looking after yourself. I don't know, everybody has different ways of looking out for themselves, whether it's exercising, or whether it's surfing, or whether it's golfing, or whether it's but exercise is an important part of all of us. Absolutely. You know, eating well, sleeping well. Sleeping well is a big thing I like to do. Always try and make sure that I'm have regular good sleep is important.

SPEAKER_02 58:19

So let's do a few quick fire questions at the end.

SPEAKER_01 58:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:24

So which you can pick one and I'll pick one. All right, what's yours? Which mistake causes the most damage?

SPEAKER_01 58:32

Whoa, okay. I would say the most damage would be not knowing your numbers. Because I feel that has a a flow-on effect on everything. The second one for me.

SPEAKER_02 58:48

You're not allowed to have two.

SPEAKER_01 58:49

Okay. Well, what's yours?

SPEAKER_02 58:51

I think um I like the one about the customer.

SPEAKER_01 58:55

Yeah, ignoring customer experience.

SPEAKER_02 58:59

Which one did I say was going to the top?

SPEAKER_01 59:01

Pricing to uh ignoring customer experience. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:04

Um and then you can ask one of the questions.

SPEAKER_01 59:07

Oh, okay. So the next take, the the quick fire. Okay. Mine is not knowing your numbers.

SPEAKER_02 59:15

You had that before, you can't have it.

SPEAKER_01 59:17

Oh, I can't have it again. Okay. Um which one was it? What is the what which one out of these ten mistakes is the most common? Okay. Pricing too low. Yes. And probably running not far behind that is not looking after yourself. Yes. Or not planning ahead.

SPEAKER_02 59:38

I'm going to ask one more question. What if someone feels they're making all ten mistakes?

SPEAKER_01 59:46

I think you shouldn't panic. So pick one.

SPEAKER_02 59:51

Pick one of them and start working on it. Yeah. I think just start.

SPEAKER_01 59:55

Pick one and start working on it. We might we'll put these ten mistakes and with a little bit of what you can do around them, we'll create a document and we'll put it on businessgrowthcoach.com.au. If you go under resources, we've got a few checklists and stuff there. I think this one could be a good one.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:16

And it could be a good one to put next to your desk and just, you know, even if it's each month, pick one and just say, how can I improve this? Am I making this mistake?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:26

Or circle three or four that you think you're doing and start working on that. And I think you'll find that you can improve your business so much more. And you've been listening to Kay and Crystal, Small Business Sorted Podcast, and it's been really lovely having you listen. Yes. And we hope you get a lot out of it.